While NYTimes.com vies for the title of most conservative when it comes to projecting state wins, a bevy of sites including Slate.com, Salon.com, Time.com and a few others have already declared Barack Obama president-elect. At the NYT, it’s Obama 159, John McCain 49 as I write this; the paper has been overcoming its own reticence by sending out alerts when the TV networks call a state. The result for subscribers is a mindboggling mix. At WashingtonPost.com, the count is substantially higher — 202 to 95, while at WSJ.com, “Obama takes command” with 207 to McCain’s 129. And at Time.com, Mark Halperin is bragging about being willing to call the race at 9:28 p.m. ET when the networks won’t — that includes TW sibling CNN, which is following AP’s more cautious lead.

Update: CNN, NBC, ABC called it just after 11 p.m. ET — and true to form, the NYT is reporting that the networks are projecting Obama the winner.